Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/28: Worryometer; Tue. Recap (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

Andrew Heaney dominates again, and how are we feeling about Mike Montgomery, Adrian Houser and Adam Plutko? And are we confident starting Masahiro Tanaka? ... News and notes plus Double Dongs as Yordan Alvarez is a league winner and Yadier Molina is better than you realize. Then it's Worryometer time! A couple of surprisingly awesome hitters are slumping, and is Charlie Morton fading down the stretch? ... 2020 Debate! Trea Turner vs. J.D. Martinez. Then we discuss SPs like Mike Soroka, Yu Darvish and Marcus Stroman plus many more ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. What a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Well, it's pretty risky to start the show. Talking about a player who's not done pitching yet,

but it's pretty hard to imagine Andrew Heaney's not going to be a big time standout from Tuesday. We don't have to put Andrew Heaney on the Wariometer. Welcome to the show, everybody. Adam Azer. I don't know if I'm getting sick or I just lost my voice, Scott. I may have laryngitis, but we're going to plow through it. How you doing? You're probably still trying to get the voice back right from that weekend. I mean, this is pretty extended. This is pretty extended at this point. I mean, you do have a kid, right? I do, yeah, but he seems fine. Does he interact with other kids much or not? He did this past weekend.

Are you suggesting he's sick? Wow. I have a lot to learn, I guess. So fun baseball tonight. Heenie's been great. Mike Miner's been good. Adam Plutcoe? What?

He's been really good. Seven starts now for Plutco has been very good. Adrian Howser pitched. Mike Montgomery was good. We got some injury updates for you. The in-progress games are actually quite interesting, so we'll get to that. We have a couple of double dongs and really what you need to know about Yadda or Molina.

I'll just tell you what you need to know. Yadirrina has started 10 straight games and 14 out of 15 since coming off the IL. I mean, it's just so stupid. It's just ridiculous. But he has been a top seven catcher with horrible numbers before tonight. Money homered twice. So, yeah, he's ruined the double dong section. But, all right, let's start with you, Scott.

Who are some Tuesday standouts? I mean, should we get in? in Duhini now, even though it's not done. Sure, let me pull up the box score. Because that's the big guy. And look, he got added a lot after his last start, 14 strikeouts and eight innings in that one. This is against that same Rangers lineup.

So you should obviously factor that into the assessment. But 10 strikeouts and six innings with no earned runs allowed. 20 swinging strikes, which is a number. Clayton Kershaw hasn't reached all year. I like to throw that out there from time to time. Right. And he, like, Hini, the thing is, he's been, in between I.L. Stents. He's been missing bats all year, like crazy.

And, you know, the I.L. stents, when we were, when we was pitching earlier, he was giving up way too many home runs. And so it was difficult to appreciate what he was doing stuff-wise. But it's very impressive. And I actually just wrote an article for CBSports.com. It's up there right now. 30 bold predictions for 2020. And among them, I point to three pitchers who, based on what they're doing in terms of swinging misses, swings and misses. They're basically a very low stature and fantasy.

But I think they could just be big-time breakouts next year. And Heaney is one of them. He and he is one of the three. The other two, his teammate Griffin Canning, and Denelson Lamett. Yeah. Lamett's going to have to start being a little bit more efficient. You know, so far in his career, he's... Well, actually, you know, toward the end of his rookie year, he was starting to really pitch very well.

You know, I don't think, and let me pull this up to be sure, but I don't think the pitch counts have actually been high. There have been some... They just don't let him... Early exits. Okay. And maybe it's... Yeah, he's only once thrown 100 pitches in a game. only twice thrown 90 pitches.

So, yeah, they're just pulling them early. And they've been doing that with, like, Joey Lucasey, so maybe it's a Philist's organizational philosophy. It seems to be a little bit, a little bit. But I'm sure if they had a pitcher that they trusted to go deep into games, they'd let them go. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, Lemette's got a lot going for him, too.

All right, so look, he's 84% own. So hopefully you picked them up, you know, for this two. I think it's actually a one-star week for it. Yeah, just one. Oh, well, it could be two if they skip. somebody, which they could do. But, yeah. Okay. That was probably the big standout.

I think Molina's a standout for me. Again, the numbers going into Tuesday over the last 14 days, which is most of Molina returning from the IL. He was batting 265. He did have a 345 on base with only six walks to six strikeouts, which is very good. But just a 367 slugging percentage, not hitting well. And yet he was the number six catcher in points, number eight in Rode. So if you need a catcher and Malina's available, he's available in 22% of our leagues.

You know, he's better than his numbers because he has played 14. He has started 14 of 15 games. It is unheard of for a catcher. Today's sponsors are Seatgeek. Use the promo code fantasy for $10 off your first Seekekek purchase. I used Seat Geek to go to the game during which I lost my voice. So maybe I should be mad at Seekek now. Seekek's great.

promo code fantasy, $10 off your purchase. And ZipRecruiter, if you're looking to hire somebody, you've got to sort through all these resumes. Man, Scott, did I ever tell you about the first time I interviewed for a job? I can't imagine I did.

It wasn't a very good story. No, you didn't. Well, first of all, the guy who was interviewing me, he should have used ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's where you can try it for free. ZipRecruiter is going to sort through a bunch of resumes and find the right people.

But when I got there, what you have to do when you want to be on camera when you're in college is you have to make a tape so you made at that point a cassette tape of you doing mostly fake stuff you'd put on a suit and pretend to be doing a story or whatever yeah and I got to my first job I sent my tape out to so many people I never heard back

and I got my first interview and I go to this place and the guy has like over a hundred cassette tapes stacked on top of a VCR and I was like Oh, that's why I never, because everybody's applying. So if he had ZipRecruiter to go through all of his tapes, all of his cassette tapes, would have made things so much easier. That's why I never told the story. It's a bad story.

It's a bad story. ZipRecruiter, I just telling out. Yeah, I just, this whole thing about stacks of resumes reminded me of that. And it was in Ocala, Florida, which was not a place. Oh, that's where my, that's was my wife's friends. First job was in O'Californ. Really? Yeah. Yeah, which I hear is pretty.

Not a place I wanted to live. Not a place I wanted to live. I didn't take the job. Okay, so anyway, games in progress. Yes, very important games in progress. Mike Minor is also having a good start, so that's nice to see. He only has four strikeouts, but six innings and one hit, one walk, and no runs so far. So there's that.

Do you care at all about Rick Porcelo, who had a good start? start at Corse Field. Five innings. I mean, good enough. Eight hits, two runs, five strikeouts. No, no. It's going to take a lot for me to care about Rick Porcelo at this point. All right. Let's take a look at Arizona 3, San Francisco 1.

By the way, Jackie Bradley Homer, he's been a little bit better lately. It may have had like a cold week, but I picked him up last week because I saw he'd been better. And I started having my lineup today for the game in Colorado. Mike Leak's doing Mike Leak stuff. Jeff Samarja gave up one run with three strikeouts in five innings. Do you consider Mike Leak or Jeff Samarja anything other than streaming guys, if that? I mean, Mike Leak is so, you know, so polar with his performances,

and it's been a lot more bad than the good start we're seeing here today since joining the Diamondbacks. I don't see how you can trust that. I mean, Jeff Samarge has been reliable late in it. This start with the 2ERA in his previous 10. And in a way, I don't really buy. I mean, not a lot of strikeouts. 190 Babbip in those 10 starts. He is more of a fly ball pitcher, which can lead to a lower Babbup,

and it might work out for him in the best pitching environment in baseball if he continues down that path. But there's not a lot of trust there. It's more of a hold your nose and start him because you have nothing better situation. All right. two other games to look at. Dodgers leading the Padres 7-0 and the

5th. So Cal Quantrell, do you think he's, I mean, he got crushed today, he gave up seven runs. Can we just say, oh, he played the Dodgers? He'll be better. I mean, I don't think he's that good. I was forced to call him a two-star sleeper this week because somebody has to be. Right. Regretting that one.

I mean, I think the next matchup's going to be better. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. It will be better than the Dodgers, yeah. Yeah, but, uh, no, that, that pick is already down the toilet. All right. And who else in this game? Oh, Matt Bady.

Matt Bady is right now three for three with three singles. He scored twice. He's driven in a run. I mean, this is his slash line. This is the Dodgers sort of utility player. 301, 347, 516. Does he play enough?

Is he good? Who is this man? Matt, We all should be rooting pretty hard against Beatty because I think he stands in the way of a Gavin Lux promotion. He plays a decent amount. I don't think enough that he's going to matter himself. They've been mixing in Chris Taylor and Jack Peterson and Rike Hernandez. They're basically all buying for the same spot in the Dodgers lineup.

It's the spot that doesn't have an obvious star player in it. and he does not play enough. I'm looking at his game log. Right. No, not, I mean, recently he hasn't, but he's had stretches where he plays, like, you know, every three out of every four, two out of every three.

Yeah. All right, and then one more game. The Yankees leading the Mariners six nothing. And Aaron Judge Homer again. So, gosh, I don't know, what is that? Like four homers in his last five games or something? He's pretty hot. He's striking out a lot,

but good to see that for Judge. Hopefully you didn't like do something stupid and sit him. Well, I doubt you did because he homered a lot over the weekend. But Tanaka right now, five innings, two hits, one walk, five strikeouts. And it looks like 17 swinging strikes already. He's had big strikeout issues. I did watch some of this game. I watched some of the Angels Rangers game and some of this game before we came on the air.

And Tanaka did look pretty good. So, I mean, you just never know with him start to start. I mean, I definitely would have started him in this start at Seattle. But I think his next start should be the A's at home. That's tougher. You're going to trust Tanaka, if that is, in fact, his start? I'm not saying you have to sit him. But I don't really trust Tanaka at all anymore.

He's just not the same pitcher with the splitter. I mean, without the splitter. And, I mean, he's probably fallen like. two tiers in my starting pitcher rankings. You know, unless like he comes in in spring training next year and it's looking great. Well, you remember the explanation for the splitter struggles or no?

It is the seams. The seams on the baseball are too high for him. And it's affected his splitter. Now, he was supposed to have adjusted to it, but it hasn't really within the last month or so. I mean, he's throwing a lot of splitters. He's just not getting the whiff with it anymore. nearly as good of a pitch.

Yeah. So, I mean, if the baseball changes next year, it could be, it could come back and he could be, you know, a pretty reliable number three starting pitcher. But it's been frustrating. Man, the strikeout's so low for him. So this is encouraging. This was good. I don't know if it's encouraging.

It's the Mariners. Yeah, they're so bad. In Seattle. They're so bad. All right. He's on his way to a win, hopefully. And now the Dodgers are leading 8-0, and the Yankees up 6-0, have 2-0-0-0, and nobody out. And we'll keep you updated on those games as the Red Sox are about to put

away the Colorado Rockies. Fringy starting pitchers, guys to talk about here. Adam Plutco, Adrian Houser, and Mike Montgomery were all good in their own special way today. Plutko had 9Ks at Detroit. Gave up one run in five and two-thirds. And he's at Tampa Bay this weekend and at Minnesota next week, but it's seven starts in a row with an ERA under 350. Well, over the last seven starts for Plutco.

Adrian Houser, 52% owned, five innings one run, two strikeouts against St. Louis. But for the year, he does have a strikeout. per inning and he's been pretty good. I think he's going to be at Chicago this weekend, but if not he'll have two starts next week, which would be Houston and the Cubs, so no good matchups coming up for Hauser. And then Mike Montgomery,

good matchups coming up for him. He's got Baltimore this weekend. He's at Miami next weekend, and Montgomery went six and a third. He gave up two runs, only one earned. He struck out six A's. I think his last two starts, he only had three strikeouts in both of them. But Baltimore and Miami

next on the schedule for Montgomery, Anyway, do you have any interest in Plutgo, Houser, or Montgomery? Houser, I think, is probably the most interesting because he does have a standout skill. He puts the ball on the ground, and that can potentially make him a success. And during this stretch of starts, where he's been effective,

he's just a little below a strikeout per inning. It's been up and down from start to start, but between that and a good strikeout rate in the miners, it doesn't seem like he's a total zero in terms of strikeouts. 22 strike gets a 23 and a third and he's doing that four-start stretch four-start stretch

in which he allowed one earn run in each of them. I said that horribly, but I think people followed it. So yeah, Adrian Houser, I think, has some there's some reason to be interested in him.

Would you drop Caleb Smith for him? I don't think So Caleb Smith's not beyond dropping. I think he's just running out of gas here, the innings. I believe he's already into a career high innings. And obviously he didn't throw that many last year with the shoulder injury, the lad injury. So Caleb Smith's not beyond dropping. Houser's, I'm not that excited about Houser,

just when you're comparing him to Mike Montgomery and, Plectco, Adam Plectco. He's the only one who I see something that I think he could potentially build on. I'm not saying you can't use Pletco and Montgomery. I mean, you know where we are with that starting pitcher. There's maybe 20 great starting pitchers, 40 good starting pitchers, including those first 20, and the rest are just all whatever.

Yeah, well, you've got to look for matchups, But next week, pluck goes at Minnesota, whereas Montgomery's at Miami. So, you know, if you are looking for matchups, that's one. There's another guy that I wanted to talk about from yesterday, Pablo Lopez, because next week, he has Kansas City at home. And he's probably going to get crushed by Washington this weekend because they crush everyone. But before going on the IL, you know, I heard you guys talk about him yesterday, the four stars, his last four stars before going on the I.L. while ago. Pablo Lopez was out a while. But he went 25

innings, gave up five earn runs. He walked four, he struck out 23. He had a sub-one whip. So, you know, I didn't think his first start was so bad. Five innings, four runs, three strikeouts, after missing, like, two months or whatever it was? No, it wasn't. I was encouraged by, I was encouraged that the

velocity was there. Yeah, it was good. And I was getting pretty excited about him before the injury, because good control pitcher, at least a pretty good bat misser. They were allowing him to go six, seven innings with consistency. I don't see why they won it now with all the time he missed.

Might as well pile some innings on there. Yeah. You know, with Royals next week, yeah, that's somebody who stands out. I would take him over Hauser, I think. Yeah, like you have to sit there if you're thinking about picking up Pablo Lopez and think, okay, can I see, if he goes out and gets crushed by Washington this week and can I really trust him, and I don't know that you can. but if you pick him up now and he does well against Washington,

then you're going to beat the rush and you're going to have him for a home start against Kansas City. Let's take a quick break on fantasy baseball football, fantasy baseball today. And when we come back, we will give you some news and notes as Cotel Marte left with a leg injury and we'll update you on some more from around baseball. Well, as mentioned, Cotel Marte left with a leg injury and it wasn't like he got hit by a pitch or something. He hit a home run and he limped. So we'll have to wait and see. I'm sure you, by the time you hear this, you probably know more than I do.

It's either a cramp or he's out for the season, I guess. Jose Ramirez is out for the regular season. Might be able to play in the postseason if they make it, but you can drop Jose Ramirez, which I'll be doing tonight. Justin Turner is appealing a one-game suspension. David Peralta's out for the season. You know, I kind of wanted to see where his season was going to go, because he started out the year, coming off a year as a top 20 outfielder.

David Peralta, his first 46 games, he had an 881 OPS. He batted at 309 with seven homers. He was hitting the ball hard like he did last season. I don't know if it was the same, but he was hitting it hard. And then he went on the IL for about two weeks. And then he came back and he played 27 games and he had at 730 OPS. It just wasn't very good. And then he came back after another IL stint and he had a 722 OPS.

So I have a feeling nobody's going to really want him next year. Nobody really wanted him this year. but it is worth noting that David Peralta before he went on the IL for the first of two times had an 881 OPS and was basically backing up his 2018 season I get burned

I get burned with that stuff you know like Brian Dozier this year I try to find reasons to like guys they're like well you know he's I excuse a bad year and then turns out I was missing the big picture I like Tyler Skaggs Tyler Skaggs right I mean

I hate to bring him up but his numbers were so good before he was pitching through an injury and then he just didn't pitch well this year and sometimes I let injuries be a big excuse for guys underperforming and I you know I get burned by that sometimes

yeah I mean it's you can always make an excuse for you can always find a reason to like a player um so I don't think you're necessarily wrong to do that it's just you have to weigh what you could get instead and you know what the what the reason not to like the player is and which is the stronger more likely case yeah all right so where do you think you're going to rank david peralta next year

not very high no i i wasn't really buying into last year and and even though he was hitting the ball hard again at the start of the year it wasn't with great home run production, which you know, kind of need home runs to stand out in this environment. Really, he has only 120 homer season and it happened to be a 30 homer season. So that's, uh,

yeah, I don't think he's going to be in my top 40 outfielders, maybe not even top 50. See, I told you nobody would want him. Okay, more news. San Francisco put Scooter Jeanette on waivers. So, you know, if he can get his career back on track, at least he does not have to be in San Francisco in that park.

Yankees news? Yeah, that's good. I can't believe Scooter Jeanette's Fallen that hard this year. Yeah, right, weird. I mean, he hasn't done anything at the plate, I understand. But that's, I mean, when he got hurt this spring, it was like the world stopped.

It was such big news. It was maybe the biggest thing that happened in all spring training. Scooter Jeanette popping his groin like that. Was it groin? I told him. That sounded uncomfortable. No, that would be big news, for sure.

Yeah. The Yankees news. Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, and Delham Batances. They could all be back in September. Severino is approaching a rehab assignment. Johnny Quato is going to be back after one more rehab start.

Hunter Pence is on the IL. Now I've mentioned this. This would be the third time, I think. Tyler Glass now is going to come back as a reliever, but today it occurred to me, hey, what does that mean? What does that mean for the race? Does that mean after an opener?

Maybe he bitches like four innings? And he could be good with ratios? Or is he like a one-inning guy? which I don't think we want. But do you have any idea what they would do with Tyler Glass now? I feel like I did see the phrase multi-inning reliever for him. Yeah, that could be valuable. I wish I hadn't dropped him.

Yeah. I'm trying to see if I can find it now. Okay. But yeah, I mean, if he's following an opener, and I imagine it would be a situation, like, they're still in the thick of the playoff race, right? Oh, I think they're in the place. They might be.

It's Cleveland, Oakland, and Tampa Bay right now are vying for two. For two spots. And right now, the A, the Rays are third, but not, you know, not by much. They're very much in the mix. So, you know, I can see it being a situation where they use that, what do they call it, the bulk roll. Is that what they call it? Sure.

The guy who follows the opener and pitches all the innings. They use that to stretch them out for a possible playoff run. Yeah, yeah. Okay. glass now. Right now, going into tonight. Actually, no, I think it's updated. Cleveland is a half game up on Oakland. They are the two wildcard teams. Tampa Bay is one game back of Oakland, two in the loss column. And then Boston is only six and a half behind Oakland and probably six if they can just close out this game, Aronado Homer in the ninth.

I will not, I will not be counting Boston out just yet. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs, but I won't count him out. More news. Andrew Benetantendi sat with a sore side. Aristides Aquino has stolen two bases in his last three games. That's just not, he's not going to steal bases, is he? I wouldn't think so. But you know what? He is really fast. I do remember reading that. I forget who it was. It may have been the Welsh

actually, was talking about how the Welsh. It's just funny to refer to him. How he didn't look like much of the hitter at first, but you could see the athleticism, including the speed. I don't think it was Chris Welsh, but it was somebody. Okay, who's the other guy?

Justin Verlander was ejected. Ahmed Rosario is still leading off, even when the Jeff McNeil back, McNeil is batting second. Eddie Rosario returned. Danny Duffy is likely to return on Saturday. He's going to start. And Sean Doolittle is scheduled to throw a simulated game

on Wednesday. Double dons. Jordan Alvarez or Jordan Alvarez. I'm so tired of that. I say Jordan because that's what I was told to say. And people were like, hey, idiot. Why are you saying Jordan? Even the announcers say Jordan.

Anyway, what a league winner, Jordan Alvarez has been. He has an 1123 OPS. That was like midway through their game. So it's probably right around that. But like, just incredible. 329, but 21 homers and 19 doubles in 60 games. Somebody brought up a great point. on the

FS1 broadcast of the Rangers Angels game that they were just talking about baseball he's a DH what do they do if they are in the

world series and they're in Los Angeles or something like that like do they get them in the lineup well he's played he started a couple

games in the outfield this year for them so yeah he started seven games in the outfield for them so I imagine

that's what they do okay let's see let's check there NL games. At St. Louis, he sat twice and he played the outfield once. Okay. Any others? Any others? I don't see any

others. Um, and then Yaddy and Merlina we already talked about. So Scott, that must mean it is Worryometer time here on this Wednesday. It's Tuesday night. Oh, is it went through? Oh, it's Wednesday. It's 12.15. All right. So we can officially be worried. Wuriometer four. Gio Urshella

in his last 12 games entering Tuesday, Gio Urchella was batting a shiny 300. That's great. But only two extra base hits, both doubles, with one walk and 15 strikeouts and a 429 babb to get that batting average to 300. So Urchella, one walk to 15 strikeouts, almost no power over his last 12 games.

Wuriometer. Oh, maybe three. three it's too short of a stretch for me to be concerned about and overall I think the season long numbers still suggest a great deal of legitimacy to what he's doing in fact one of my 30 bold predictions that I referred to earlier in the program I like calling the program yeah program program yeah that's something nobody that's a word nobody uses to describe it in an actual conversation. But anyway, yeah, one of them is that Miguel And Duhar doesn't make the Yankees

opening day roster. And they'll say it's because he needs more time to recover from the shoulder. But really, there's no place to put him because Urchella's that good. There's going to be some wheeling and dealing by the Yankees this offseason. Urchelle is one for three with a double as we speak tonight. Worryometer 4. Danny Santana, in his last 28 days, entering Tuesday. He's batting 226 with two walks to 34 strikeouts,

but he still did hit seven home runs. So that's very encouraging. But Santana, 226, seven homers, 16 RBIs, two walks, 34 strikeouts, only four doubles in his last 28 games. In those 28 days, it's two weeks, it's four weeks, it's two great weeks, two terrible weeks. But Wariometer for Danny Santana. I'll put that one at about a five.

I don't buy into what he's doing totally. I think there's a case to be made that he is a high Babbip guy. And, you know, he's slumped to the point now that the Babbitt for the season is 366. I think it's still a little on the high side. But he was due for some regression and because he's so bad in terms of plate discipline. I feel like when he's not hot, he's going to be very frustrating to use. All right, that's Danny Santana. How about Luis Castillo?

He gave up five runs. He did strike out 11 at Miami, and he got the win. But that's his third start and his last seven starts, allowing five or more earn runs for Luis Castillo. Yeah, zero. I mean, that just comes with the territory in 2019. I think there's a reason to be encouraging. by Luis Castillo, and that's now in his past 10 starts,

his walks per nine inning is rate is 1.6, and his past 10 starts. That was really the only thing holding him back early on, the only reason, you know, there was some talk. I think Chris and Heath were both of the belief that Chris Towers were both of the belief he'd be one of the biggest busts in the second half because the walk rate was so high and he's really improved in that regard.

Now the ERA has gone up in the second half, but I don't think in a way that's concerning or certainly he's had plenty of dominant starts during that stretch too. All right, that's Luis Castillo. And finally, Charlie Morton, I'm not going to say I'm not completely unconcerned about Morton. He gave up six runs and four innings

with four strikeouts at Houston. And going into this start, he had a 410 ERA since the All-Star break. Still a great walk-to-strike ratio. but this is a guy who he kind of wore down at the end of last year. He's always had injuries, Charlie Morton, and, you know, going deep into a season, it's not easy for him. They've taken major steps to limit his innings this year,

and his pitch counts, really. I don't know, where are you on Charlie Morton, zero to ten? I'm like a four. I'm still going to start him without question, but with a little less confidence now. ads it's a zero what's his innings high let's take a look at charlie morton's career huh

Charles Chuck Morton search for Chuck Morton Chuck Morton he had 167 last year he's at 165 now yeah I mean and that was a career no he had a career high 171 and two thirds in 2011 long time ago yeah yeah

Yeah, I think I'm a little concerned Because he faded at the end of last year So, yeah Okay Okay Let's take another break on fantasy baseball today When we come back a fun 2020 debate Some more players to add

A cool article I want to talk about And your email is at fantasy baseball At cbsi.com Scott, let's take a look ahead to 2020 Okay I was going to do the Conan O'Brien In the year two thousand But I can't do it because I have laryngitis

You did a pretty, that was pretty good. Yeah, but that was my favorite sketch that Conan did. Like that is where he had me. I like the staring contests were I think were my favorites. Trey Turner or J.D. Martinez, two players who are just crushing it.

Last 31 games for J.D. Martinez entering tonight, a 1239 OPS. A 1239 OPS. Trey Turner, meanwhile, last 67 games. An 891 OPS on pace for 25 homers and 49 steals on pay. That's a 162 pace. So who would you rather have, Trey Turner or J.D. Martinez?

I think it's going to depend on format, which is a frustrating answer. But, I mean, Trey Turner is still one of the most prolific base dealers in baseball. And probably the most reliable sources for steals among the early rounders, right? The guys who could potentially go in the first round, I guess Acuna is in that discussion now, too,

as far as the stolen bases go. Yeah, I mean, you can't pass up those steals if you're picking late in round one in a roto league or a five-by-five league. I mean, J.D. Martinez, what he does will be a little more replaceable in that format at the same time. He's, I think, still as studly as we're,

regarded him being coming into the year, even if, you know, it's been a subtle step back, but not enough to think he's a lesser player. So he'll still be a second rounder, I think, in both formats. Just, you know, Turner will slide into round one in a categories league. Yeah, man, I mean, Turner's batting 302. That's huge. He's his last two seasons. I think a little disappointed, not bad with batting average, but you just feel like with his speed, you know, he should be hitting higher than 271. He hit 284 once, so. I don't know.

You know, this hot streak has really raised his numbers. He's been great. Okay, Scott, players to add. So I talked about Pablo Lopez. I'll make the case for him. I'm going to make the case for a hitter. Corey Dickerson. He has now started each of the last three games against lefties,

including today. He's a doubles machine. He's got 29 doubles in how many games, 64 games. It's crazy. 24 doubles in 64 games. Still crazy. But yeah, he's playing every day, basically, for the Phillies.

And 20 or more fantasy points in three of his last four weeks. So he's 48% owned. And we haven't really talked about him lately, as we've talked about a lot of hitters to add. How do you feel about Cory Dickerson? I hadn't noticed he'd started playing every day for the Phillies. So that's interesting. I wonder what his splits are like. Lefties, righties.

He's terrible against lefties. Who knows how long it'll last. But for now, you know, he's got some five outfielders. appeal. I'm not sure the power production is well, I don't know. It's been fine. He's played so little this year

because of injuries and inconsistent starts. But I guess like if it was between him and Mark Kanna, who's still widely available, I'd definitely go Kana. But on a lower end, Dickerson,

you know, he could be fine. Okay. So let's go Back to the In Progress Games, if there's an update, the Angels have erupted for four runs in the seventh. And that's such a bummer because it ruins Mike Miner's start. Mike Miner had given up zero runs through six. He ends up charged with four runs in six and two-thirds. This really just happened, so I don't know if Minor himself gave up the runs or if they were, you know, the bullpen giving up runs for him. But, you know, he just has not been so good since the All-Star break, or really since the start of July,

Last start, he gave up six earn runs. Three starts before that were pretty damn good. But, yeah, how do you feel about Mike Minor right now? Well, he had those two starts at the beginning of August. Seven shutout innings with seven Ks, eight shutout innings with 11K, and you think, okay, he's back on track. And since then, I mean, really, the last two starts. The thing about Mike Minor, I so want to believe in him,

it's obvious he's improved from last year when he was transitioning from the bullpen back to his starting role. And yet the ex-fip, if I'm going to be consistent about this, it's been in the mid-fours all season long. And here he is now with a 325 ERA on the season. You know, it could be as simple as what we're seeing since the start of July with the ERA at that time was 240. Is just plain and simple regression.

Yeah, all right. So do you mostly feel like you'd be starting him? I mean, come on. What else are you going to do? Fair enough. All right, so that's your update. Everything else, pretty much, we already talked about. Hini, Tanaka, Quantral, etc.

Article of the Day. Did you have a chance to read the article I sent you? I read most of it. It was pretty long. I got the gist. Yeah, it was good. It was by Tom Verducci and Sports Illustrated about how the Mets finally solved the mystery of flushing.

They had been the worst home team. I mean, they're batting stats at home consistently among the worst in baseball. Still not great, but they have changed things. And I thought what was so interesting is that they credit Chile Davis. And I was so worried about Chile Davis destroying all of the Mets hitters. But his approach is different. He's not a launch angle guy. The Mets have changed their launch angle dramatically, and they're hitting to the opposite field,

and they're doing better with situational hitting, like they're doing better with runners in scoring position. So they zagged where others zigged, or zigged where others zagged, and it's a pretty cool read. And what do you think, you know, could that be starting a bit of a trend? And I don't know.

I thought it was really interesting that they kind of got away from the launch angle thing and they've become a better hitting team because of it. Well, a lot of it was personnel in terms of the actual players. that they changed out rather than trying to change what was already there. In fact, I think, yeah, Michael Conforto's launch angles, the highest it's ever been this year, and a big leap from last year. So that's just a guy who was there this year and last and what they've actually done with him.

But Jeff McNeil, they kind of got the idea from Jeff McNeil, seeing how well he fared in that environment last year, and he was more of a line drive guy. I think it's just, to say everybody needs to raise their launch angle is an oversimplification as we're all prone to doing. I mean, we like simplifying things, right? And I think it's helped a lot of players

in an environment where the ball travels very well. I think it's generally, good thing, but it's not right for everybody. And there are downsides to it. I mean, Reese Hoskins, who I've been talking about this week, pointing out how badly his season's gone after a very good start, he elevates the ball so much that, you know, he basically has to hit it out of the park to benefit his batting average. To have a respectable batting average, he has to hit a ton of home runs.

And that's the downside to it. So, you know, they were, you think about some of the hitters the Mets have had over the years who, like, they had some good slugging tendencies, but it just wasn't working in that park for whatever reason. And I don't even think the park factors for that stadium are really that bad. But yeah, it was amazing seeing some of the stats Tom Verducci pulled out how consistent. consistently the Mets ranked in the bottom of the league. The bottom of 30th. Babbip at home. Yeah, Babbip, yeah.

Yeah, which, you know, it was just like, it's hard to say there's nothing to it when it happened that many years over, like, the course of a decade. Yep, so good read. Check it out. Scott, I'm going to fire away with you with some rotation members. You just tell me what you think real quick. Mike Soroka, three or few. fewer strikeouts in three of his last six starts, but still producing.

Yeah, it's such a good ground ball pitcher, such a good strikeout pitcher. I guess he's kind of succeeding in the way Miles Michaelis did last year. He's actually in my bold predictions, too. I think he figures out, you know, it's only 21 years. Or he just turned 22. So he moved very fast. I think it's going to be an Aaroniola situation where he, uh, once he gets settled, he starts to figure out how to put hitters away more.

Okay, how about you Darvish? Great start again at the Mets. Yeah, he's just an ace again. Mike Fires. That's how fast we're going. Mike Fires? Yeah. Three of four non-quality starts, so he's falling apart, right?

Pretty much just the innings. Like, for some reason, he's not quite making it through six, but it's not like the production stopped. So whatever. It will eventually. He's not, he's not, I'm sticking to it. he's not good. Caleb Smith.

I think he's probably going to get shut down soon, and he's awfully hard to use right now, especially since even when he pitches well, you've got to figure it's unlikely he's going to get a win. Okay, how about Miles Michaelis? I mean, if he could do what he did today with regularity, 10-strikeout 16 swinging strikes. Well, he can't. He can't.

but he obviously can. I mean, five run runs and three of his previous, well, each of his previous three. And yeah, he's just too many home runs after avoiding them last year. They've come back to bite him this year. How about Marcus Drummond? Oh, what bad trade. Yeah, I mean, this was his best start with the Mets.

He still gave a four and runs in six. And what I noticed with him is five, five home runs and five starts with the Mets. He had only given up seven home runs and 20 starts with the Blue Jays. So, I mean... And the strikeouts are up with the Mets too.

He's a new pitcher. Yeah. And I would have to look at it again. I wondered if he was like featuring a slider more at the expense of the sinker and maybe that explained it, but I didn't notice anything like that. I'll look at it again. Okay. Lucas Gialito and Michael

Paneda. Too good, went ahead to head-to-head day, did well. Yes. I learned my mistake. I learned from my lesson on Gialito. I did not sit him against the twins this time. Right. He's going to be a top 15 pitcher.

He's the top 15 pitcher now. Just the strikeout total has been so consistent, particularly of late. Paneda is another of those pitchers that he's on a good run right now. don't really trust that he's somebody we should be relying on, but he's in my top 50 pitchers just because somebody has to be. Okay, that's it for the rotation. I just want to check on something here. Yeah, so I didn't realize this, and I apologize.

Adrian Houser actually left his start tonight with a hip issue. So please keep that in mind. Okay, I didn't notice either. Yeah, there you go. And in the bullpen, Hector Narris took the loss today after blowing a save on Monday. He had been pitching great, and I'm sure he's still there a guy, but worth noting. And Taylor Rogers got a save with Sergio Romo pitching the eighth inning. We got a lot of emails recently, so let me clear my throat and let me read some emails.

All right, here we go. From Reggie. I'm dropping Caleb Smith. Who do I add? David Price, Dylan Sees, Alcantara, Yvonne Nova, or Plutgo? All right. Rattle off those pictures again for me? David Price, Dylan Sees, Alcantara, Nova, or Plutco?

Alcantara. That's your favorite in that group? Ahead of David Price? See, when you don't include the emails, I get so confused. I didn't have time. But I can't follow along. All right. So he's dropping Caleb Smith.

I found the email. He's dropping Caleb Smith. He's adding one of these pictures. It's David Price, obviously, who's coming back this weekend. Thank you, Reggie, for your participation. There you go. Okay. From the vegan pagan.

Hello, Dave, Lisa, Matthew, and Bill. I think that's news radio, the sitcom. What? That is the most random, random thing. And how do you know that? Who the hell watched news radio? I don't know. It was on syndication.

Late nights before Conan when I was in high school and watching syndicated sitcoms was what you did to entertain yourself back in those days. All right. Well, here's the vegan pagan's question. First, he has a team name Tuesday for a Tuesday night. It's actually Wednesday morning. The Real Deal with Jeff McNeil. This is a reference to the late Phil Hartman's character on news radio.

There you go. Called The Real Deal with Bill. Bill McNeil. Maybe Newsradneed was good. Maybe it had Phil Hartman in it. Probably was good. Oh, it had a great cast. As I look toward my 2020 keepers,

can you rank these second base eligible players for 2020? Jeff McNeil, Escobar, Eduardo Escobar, Catelle Marte, Max Muncie, and Ozzie Albiz. I don't see how you don't put Catea at the top. he's just been so far ahead of everybody else at the position except for Altuvae and maybe DJ LeMayhew. I would go I'll be second, Muncie third, McNeil fourth, and Escobar fifth. Muncie and McNeil are close. It kind of depends what you're looking for between them, but Muncie, I would take over him

and over McNeil in a vacuum. Okay. Dave Foley, very funny guy. I'm just getting the full cast here. Stephen Root, I don't know him. Stephen Root? You don't know Stephen Root? Let me take a look. Milk from office space. Oh, yeah, I know Stephen Roe.

He's liking everything. Okay. Andy Dick. Yeah. Mora Tierney. Do I know her? Joe Rogan, Phil Hartman, Vicki Lewis, John Lovitz, Candy, Alexander. Yeah.

You don't know Maura Tierney? I mean, I probably do. Bob Odenkirk was in it? How about that? I don't know that. Yeah. Maura Tierney, do I know her?

Oh, of course I know Mora Tierney. She's wonderful. Okay. More and more. Back to the emails here. From Eric, I'm in the championship for the second year. I have a strategy question

about lineups during the championship matchup. We get seven transactions each week. I've used three. so far. I've blocked my opponents once on a streaming pitcher, but my problem comes on Thursday when I'm short, six position players, and my opponent has a complete lineup.

Would you use all four of your remaining moves to get hitters to fill Thursday? Save those moves to try and block pitchers of my opponent or a combination. He, by the way, has used four of seven moves for the week. I would save at least one for the weekend in case you need a streaming pitcher

and you're down in strikeouts or something like that, at least one. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what your pitching staff looks like versus his. I imagine yours is superior, and that's why he's having to resort to streaming, and you're looking to block him. Like, I've never faced this scenario before, so I feel like I'm kind of answering in the blind, but my hunch would be that a day of hitting stats isn't as valuable as, you know, blocking what he could be getting from a pitcher. I think you've got to get at least two hitters

because that is a big, that is a big gap of six hitters one day that you're down. So you can't make it all up, but I would say, I would say get two. And, yeah, go from there, at least two. Okay, and this is from Trevor. Is Andrew Benintendi even rosterable

at this point of the season in a 10-team five outfielder league. It's Roto. Yeah, I would say he is. He's, you know, he was one of the hottest hitters in baseball just a couple weeks ago. I think he's a little banged up now, right? Yeah, he's missed, I think, a couple games in a row. Side issue. Yeah.

But it's a day-to-day thing. Five outfield, like if it was a three-outfielded league, okay, I could understand. But five outfielers, I think you got to hold on to him. It's kind of a shame he's missing his course field series. We have a hot hitter alert from Brock, hot batter alert. And he just says Dexter Fowler alert. Yeah, Fowler's been pretty good. Been pretty good lately.

I was surprised to see what his numbers looked like when I was looking at him the other day. Yeah, let's take, like, post-all-Star break? No, that's not it. When did he start being good? August? How has he been so good? No, you know what?

He has a good. been that good. He has a good walk to strikeout ratio, so he's scoring a lot of points. He has 15 walks to 19Ks in August, during which time he's batting 256 with three homers and two steals. But six doubles. It's okay. It's like it's close to a 200 ISO. It's a very good OBP. So it's it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Right. To, to, you know, add some perspective. I presumed he had been terrible, like, doesn't deserve to be in the Cardinals' lineup bad. And he clearly hasn't been that bad. He's been okay.

But, yeah, he's not a priority pickup. Shouldn't it be for anybody. And last question here, I think. It's about Mike Mustakis, who did not play tonight. I don't know exactly what his status is. I know he's got, I think, a wrist injury or something. Yeah. If Mike Mustakis is out, this is from Sean, by the way,

who would you choose Edmund, Galvis, or Ryan McMahon? I would choose, I mean, Ryan McMahon, whenever he's at home. Yeah, I'm sorry, this was questions old. This was to start this week. I would have started McMahon. Yeah, I hope he'd homered yesterday. Come on, Adam. Don't pick out the other one.

All right, well, then let's do a newer one. This is from Adam. No, let's do this one from Nick. Sorry, Adam Can we all finally agree that Gleiber Torres is better than Paul the Young? They're always being compared and talked about the same same. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, that was not a great take by Heath. It was for like two months. Yeah, I like how Heath likes to like point out everybody else's bad calls. Oh, yeah, it's his classic. I haven't heard him bring up that one in a while. Classic Heath. You know, Glaibre Torres, I was talking with my friend. last year he's a Mets fan.

Last year I said, would you take straight up right now Glaver Torres for Jacob deGrom? This was last year. And he said no. And DeGrom's like over 30, right? I mean, he's, I think he's like 31 or something. And Glavers, at that point was 21.

There's a big age gap. I don't know if it's exactly a decade, but he said no. And then this year I said the same thing. Like, hey, would you take, would you take Torres over DeGrom? And he said, no. Like, dude, Claver Torres is 22 years old. and he said no and then he said he's a great hitter

and I said you know what I'm not sure he's a great hitter like you're arguing with yourself yeah because I would I would rather have him than de Grom because he's so much younger but I think he needs to start walking more before I call him a great hitter

like he's kind of like he just homers there's nothing else that he does great just homers well I know I know that's a crazy thing to say because it's a very important thing. It's the kid who only hit homers.

But I don't know. I don't think he's a great hitter. He has 21 doubles, 33 homers, and 45 walks, which is like, that's not bad. So he's a professional hitter. He's very, it's amazing how many of the top 10 hitters have between 40 and 50 walks. Ketel Marte, Eduardo Escobar, Whitmerfield, Ozzy Albiz, Glaibre Torres, Mike Mastakis.

What are you, what? It's just a strange observation. I know, I'm just seeing this now. They all have like the same amount of walks. It's weird. I think you're tired. Oh, you think? I'm going to sleep.

What kind of observations you're made? I'm going to sleep. I think this is an interesting thing to say. Scott, would you like to hear more about my first job interview or should I save that for a separate show? And I just, I want to hear it. I want to hear how, I mean,

Clearly you didn't get the job, right? I didn't accept the job. I was one of like three finalists and I did not want the job. But I was driving. He drove me through Ocala and we passed like an Applebee's and whatever. And I said, so is there like a downtown Ocala? And he goes, we just drove past it. I was like, oh God.

I do not want to live here. I want to move to New York City. Okay, Scott, thank you so much. The Welsh will be back tomorrow. I will be back. I think on Sunday night, I'm not exactly sure what our Labor Day plans are,

but I think we'll have a Sunday night show. But maybe not. I don't know. I'm sorry. Okay, for Scott White, I'm Adam Azer. Talk to you later.